El Corazón Del Pueblo: Teatro Carmen, a Spanish-Language Film, and Performance Space in Tucson, Arizona, in 1925

Tucson’s Teatro Carmen is the oldest bilingual performance space in a Sonoran row house context in the U.S. Its geographical location as a midway point between Los Angeles and the cultural cities of northern Mexico make it significant in the history of arts production and transfer in the early 20^th century. Built on land acquired by the Vasquez family in 1853, the theatre was designed and funded by Carmen Soto de Vazquez as a dedicated Spanish and Mexican cultural center. The two-story adobe building was not overseen by an architect, but rather put in the hands of the community’s trusted builder, Manuel Flores, who also designed and built the three-story adobe San Agustin school in the oldest Mexicano neighborhood in Tucson. Teatro Carmen opened on May 20, 1915, with the play Cerebro y Corazon (1907) by Potosina melodramatist Teresa Farias de Isassi. While other Tucson entertainment venues occasionally featured Mexican dramas or zarzuelas, Teatro Carmen was a truly unique dedicated location for companies presenting theatrical works in Spanish. About a month after opening, “El Carmen” began showing films that alternated with live stage productions. This was a result of a partnership Teatro Carmen had with Cuauhtémoc Films, who used Teatro Carmen to film interior scenes. In 1916 the theatre was first used as a political center for the group “Club Neutral.” These adaptive uses may reflect the slowing of theatrical tours during the Revolution, as well as the changing tastes of Mexican Americans confronting modernity. This presentation will examine Teatro Carmen as a nexus of Mexican and Mexican American cultural identity in the increasingly Anglo Tucson in the first decade of Arizona statehood and discuss preservation and restoration plans for the building.